Download Power Drift

Power Drift should be familiar to those of you who owned a C64/Amiga or played arcade games in the late 1980s. For those of you who didn't, then I think one can safely say that it inspired one of the more recent Amiga racing games, Street Racer.

The game is played over 5 different courses with five different circuits in each. At the start of the game, you can choose any course and one of twelve drivers to burn rubber in your off-road buggy. In each race, you must fend off 11 other drivers and finish in the top three to advance to the next circuit. The buggy itself can take a pounding, only spinning out of control if you collide head-on with a sign, tree, post or another car. Finish a course and you can take your pick of the next course and even change driver if you feel the urge. Complete all the courses and you win the championship trophy. If you bomb out at any stage, then you get the luxury of five continue-plays.

The graphics are nicely detailed and whizz past you at a frenetic pace when in top gear. A layered graphic effect is apparent, although much less effective than the original arcade version. Occasionally, as a result, one can get disorientated and the road can be hard to find in a hurry. For seasoned players, this will pose no problem and just adds to the challenge. Novices may be frustrated. Highly recommended!

Rob's original review from when the game was at CW#3: Conversion of Sega's fun arcade racer Power Drift, which hit the arcades in 1988. The arcade game was one of the technically most advanced of its time with amazing fast and smooth graphics and extremely fun gameplay. This conversion doesn't really capture the feel of it in any way and ended up as mediocre arcade racing action. Sadly, this game is hardly playable on modern computers as the game-speed is waaay too fast. A slow-down util can help but makes gameplay very choppy.

Review By HOTUD